Chet Gresham

Targets and Touches

Week 14 Target Watch: NFC

Welcome to the NFC targets and touches for Week 14 of the NFL season. The AFC portion will be up tomorrow night.

I have all the targets for each player since Week 9, and then in parentheses are the total and then average targets per game played for that player. Then below that I have the Red Zone targets and touches for each player, now sorted for rushing attempts and passing targets from Week 9 on. I hope you enjoy and if you get a chance give a follow on Twitter.

Larry Fitzgerald has been the red zone target king with eight in the last four games and it shows with his four touchdowns in that span. On the other side Michael Floyd isn’t getting those red zone targets, but he’s getting plenty of targets as he alternates getting the most or the second most game in and game out. They very much mirror the Bears’ one-two punch of Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery as far as Veteran stud and up and coming second year player.

Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-week $300,000 Fantasy Football league for Week 14. It's $25 to join and first prize is $25,000. Starts Sunday at 1pm ET. Here's the FanDuel link.

Harry Douglas led the way with 15 targets against the Bills, but the big story was the return of Roddy White. The fantasy community had left him for dead, but the old man just needed the crisp air of Toronto to get his legs back. He was second with 14 targets, catching 10 for 143 yards. It’s great to see him back. Matt Ryan is throwing the ball 41 times a game, which should keep his receivers happy.

The Panthers only have five players over 10 targets for their last five games, which should be good to help isolate targets and fantasy value, but they just aren’t throwing the ball enough for any of the wide receivers. Steve Smith is always your best shot for production, but he’s pretty much in a dead heat fantasy-wise with Brandon LaFell, who as you know is about as inconsistent as they come.

Greg Olsen leads all pass catchers in fantasy points and remains the safest player not named Cam. He is tied with Charles Clay for 7th overall in tight end scoring, which isn’t winning you a ton of games, but it does keep you in the picture.

So this Alshon Jeffery character seems to be decent at football. After breaking the Bears receiving record in Week 5 he went ahead and did it again against the Vikings last week as he caught 12 of 15 passes for 249 yards and two touchdowns. He now is the sixth best fantasy wide receiver in overall points and Brandon Marshall is the fourth.

The emergence of Jeffery and the number of targets for Matt Forte has hurt Martellus Bennett who earlier in the season was doing well in red zone targets, but over the last five games he has a puny three.

Dez Bryant caught seven of nine passes for 61 yards and a touchdown to lead the way for the Cowboys in each of those categories. Terrance Williams was second in targets with six, catching three for 23 yards and Miles Austin was third with five, but only caught one for 18 yards. I still think they are better off with Williams clearly ahead of Austin, but they seem to be canceling each other out for now.

The Lions blew the Packers out on turkey day so there were an amazing 39 rushing attempts for 211 yards and two touchdowns and eight receptions on nine targets for 99 yards split fairly evenly between Joique Bell and Reggie Bush. That won’t happen in a non-blowout.

The odd target news here is that Nate Burleson saw one target after getting 11 in his first game back. There were fewer targets to go around in this one and Burleson saw a few less snaps, but nothing to indicate they were trying to reduce his workload, so I’ll chalk this up to game plan and look for an uptick in targets onward.

Matt Flynn turned back into a pumpkin on Thanksgiving when he completed just 10-of-20 passes for 139 yards, no touchdowns, one interception and two fumbles. That doomed the receivers in this one and in turn doomed Eddie Lacy against a stout Lions front line. It is unlikely that he’ll be quite that horrid against Atlanta, but we have to reduce our expectations.

Christian Ponder left this game with a concussion and a pitiful line of 3-of-8 completions for 40 yards. Ponder’s injury was a blessing for the Vikings as Matt Cassel came in and helped them beat the Bears in overtime with a not great, but better line of 20-of-33 passing for 243 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Adrian Peterson did his thing with 35 rushing attempts for 211 yards while Cassel’s presence helped Greg Jennings to nine targets, seven receptions, 78 yards and a touchdown. This season Cassel has helped Jennings to 15 catches for 202 yards and three touchdowns in 2.5 games while in In 8.5 games with Christian Ponder and Josh Freeman, Jennings has totaled 28 catches for 315 yards and no touchdowns.

Welcome to the NFC targets and touches for Week 14 of the NFL season. The AFC portion will be up tomorrow night.

I have all the targets for each player since Week 9, and then in parentheses are the total and then average targets per game played for that player. Then below that I have the Red Zone targets and touches for each player, now sorted for rushing attempts and passing targets from Week 9 on. I hope you enjoy and if you get a chance give a follow on Twitter.

Larry Fitzgerald has been the red zone target king with eight in the last four games and it shows with his four touchdowns in that span. On the other side Michael Floyd isn’t getting those red zone targets, but he’s getting plenty of targets as he alternates getting the most or the second most game in and game out. They very much mirror the Bears’ one-two punch of Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery as far as Veteran stud and up and coming second year player.

Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-week $300,000 Fantasy Football league for Week 14. It's $25 to join and first prize is $25,000. Starts Sunday at 1pm ET. Here's the FanDuel link.

Harry Douglas led the way with 15 targets against the Bills, but the big story was the return of Roddy White. The fantasy community had left him for dead, but the old man just needed the crisp air of Toronto to get his legs back. He was second with 14 targets, catching 10 for 143 yards. It’s great to see him back. Matt Ryan is throwing the ball 41 times a game, which should keep his receivers happy.

The Panthers only have five players over 10 targets for their last five games, which should be good to help isolate targets and fantasy value, but they just aren’t throwing the ball enough for any of the wide receivers. Steve Smith is always your best shot for production, but he’s pretty much in a dead heat fantasy-wise with Brandon LaFell, who as you know is about as inconsistent as they come.

Greg Olsen leads all pass catchers in fantasy points and remains the safest player not named Cam. He is tied with Charles Clay for 7th overall in tight end scoring, which isn’t winning you a ton of games, but it does keep you in the picture.

So this Alshon Jeffery character seems to be decent at football. After breaking the Bears receiving record in Week 5 he went ahead and did it again against the Vikings last week as he caught 12 of 15 passes for 249 yards and two touchdowns. He now is the sixth best fantasy wide receiver in overall points and Brandon Marshall is the fourth.

The emergence of Jeffery and the number of targets for Matt Forte has hurt Martellus Bennett who earlier in the season was doing well in red zone targets, but over the last five games he has a puny three.

Dez Bryant caught seven of nine passes for 61 yards and a touchdown to lead the way for the Cowboys in each of those categories. Terrance Williams was second in targets with six, catching three for 23 yards and Miles Austin was third with five, but only caught one for 18 yards. I still think they are better off with Williams clearly ahead of Austin, but they seem to be canceling each other out for now.

The Lions blew the Packers out on turkey day so there were an amazing 39 rushing attempts for 211 yards and two touchdowns and eight receptions on nine targets for 99 yards split fairly evenly between Joique Bell and Reggie Bush. That won’t happen in a non-blowout.

The odd target news here is that Nate Burleson saw one target after getting 11 in his first game back. There were fewer targets to go around in this one and Burleson saw a few less snaps, but nothing to indicate they were trying to reduce his workload, so I’ll chalk this up to game plan and look for an uptick in targets onward.

Matt Flynn turned back into a pumpkin on Thanksgiving when he completed just 10-of-20 passes for 139 yards, no touchdowns, one interception and two fumbles. That doomed the receivers in this one and in turn doomed Eddie Lacy against a stout Lions front line. It is unlikely that he’ll be quite that horrid against Atlanta, but we have to reduce our expectations.

Christian Ponder left this game with a concussion and a pitiful line of 3-of-8 completions for 40 yards. Ponder’s injury was a blessing for the Vikings as Matt Cassel came in and helped them beat the Bears in overtime with a not great, but better line of 20-of-33 passing for 243 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Adrian Peterson did his thing with 35 rushing attempts for 211 yards while Cassel’s presence helped Greg Jennings to nine targets, seven receptions, 78 yards and a touchdown. This season Cassel has helped Jennings to 15 catches for 202 yards and three touchdowns in 2.5 games while in In 8.5 games with Christian Ponder and Josh Freeman, Jennings has totaled 28 catches for 315 yards and no touchdowns.

The Seahawks came to play on Monday night and Drew Brees was held to 23-of38 passing for 147 yards and a touchdown. That just doesn’t happen to Brees. They really couldn’t do anything and when they did make a completion it was usually underneath and stopped before it started. He did manage to get a touchdown to Jimmy Graham, which brings Graham to a healthy 12 on the season.

Since Week 3 Eli Manning is averaging 19-of-33 completions for 218 yards, one touchdown and 1.1 interceptions. That might imply a tough schedule, but for the most part he’s had the easiest schedule in the league since Week 5 facing Philadelphia, Chicago, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Oakland, Green Bay, Dallas and Washington. That right there is enough to break the heart of any fantasy footballer who deals in the sweet study of matchups.

Against Washington he had a great completion rate, going 22-of-28, but could only muster 235 yards, one touchdown and had an interception, his 18th. Victor Cruz led the way with seven targets, which he caught six of for 80 yards. In the past this matchup would have been an automatic 100 yards and a touchdown for Cruz.

Nick Foles is relentless in proving week in and week out that he is a good quarterback. He finished the day 21-of-34 for 237 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. He now has 19 touchdown passes to zero interceptions. That trails Peyton Manning’s record of 20 touchdowns to zero interceptions by, well, you can do the math.

The Cardinals weakness on defense is against tight ends and the Eagles exploited that to its fullest with all three touchdown passes going to tight ends, two for Zach Ertz and one for Brent Celek. That left the star wide receivers out of the fantasy fun, but we knew the Cardinals were tough on wide receivers.

The addition of Michael Crabtree to the offense seems to have helped already. Colin Kaepernick completed 19-of-28 for 275 yards and a touchdown against the Rams. Those 275 yards were his highest total since his 412 yards in Week 1. Was that due to Crabtree? All I know is that it didn’t hurt. Crabtree had four targets and caught two for 68 yards, while Anquan Boldin had 14 targets and caught nine for 98 yards and Vernon Davis had five targets and caught four for 82 yards and a touchdown.

Crabtree saw 63% of the snaps and will get closer to 100% as he gets back into game shape. That will surely cut into Boldin’s targets more than Davis’. But any way you slice it, having those three on the field at the same time is a huge boon to that offense and Kaepernick’s upside.

Russell Wilson had his biggest yardage game since Week 1 when he tossed 320 yards against Carolina. New Orleans and Carolina have now given up five 300+ yard passing games this season, two of them to Wilson.

The Seahawks are always difficult to figure. Much like the Patriots, they will switch things up, especially in who sees the bulk of the targets. Over the past four games Doug Baldwin leads in targets with a measly 6.2 per game average. Zach Miller was the target leader this week and had his best game of the season. Oh, and he had zero targets just two games back. Wilson is accurate and a great decision maker, but nobody besides Marshawn Lynch gets special treatment.

It’s a bit surprising to see Chris Givens as the target leader over the last four games since he is averaging two receptions for 34.8 yards and no touchdowns during that span, but we have to remember Kellen Clemens is at the helm.

Tavon Austin did receive seven targets, his most since Week 4 when he had eight, but he still only had four receptions for 25 yards. He had back-to-back games with explosive touchdown runs, receptions and returns, but remains way too inconsistent to start in fantasy.

The stout Carolina defense got the best of Mike Glennon and company in this matchup. Glennon finished the day 14-of-21 for 180 yards, no touchdowns, one interception and one fumble. Vincent Jackson led the way with just five targets which he turned into three receptions for 75 yards while Tiquan Underwood backed up his big Week 13 with a respectable, under the circumstances, three receptions on four targets for 51 yards.

Pierre Garcon continued to be a target monger with 12 against the Giants. He ended up with whopping nine receptions, but just 61 yards and no touchdowns. He has yet to have a game where he hasn’t caught five or more passes and only two games with fewer than 10 targets, but he does need some help to take the pressure off him and Jordan Reed is just that. They need Reed back badly.